


Set in Stone

by romanticalgirl



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 18:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18644053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanticalgirl/pseuds/romanticalgirl
Summary: ** endgame spoilers **A soul for a soul





	Set in Stone

“Steve Rogers. Son of Sarah.” Steve looks up at the floating black mass. The voice is raspy, a hint of an accent. “Or should I call you Captain Rogers.”

The light hits the deep red of Johann Schmidt’s true face, his eerie white smile. “Scmidt.”

“You seek the soul stone.” Schmidt tilts his head. “It is not here.”

Steve looks around. “This is where the Tesseract brought you?”

“It banished me here. I wanted the power. I wanted all the stones. Wanted to hold the world in my fingertips, spread Hydra throughout the galaxy.” He shakes his head, the dark clouds roiling beneath him as he moves closer to the edge of the cliff. There are markings in the stone and the drop to the bottom seems endless. He thinks about Natasha at the bottom, broken and bleeding.

Anger burns through him like wildfire, and it takes everything to stand still. “How does it work?”

“The stone? I think you know, Captain.”

“Humor me,” he bites out through gritted teeth.

“Someone always comes for the stone, thinking they deserve everything, that they have the right and strength to wield it. They come here and I tell them all the same thing. What they seek lies before them. As does what they fear.” Schmidt gestures down at the ground and then at the barren planet surrounding them. “The soul stone is like no other. The others require work and obligation. But this one. This one requires a sacrifice.”

“What I love.”

“So you did truly know the tale.” He nods, another smile white against the red. “The stone requires that you know the power it holds. That you are willing to give something up for all of that.”

“And if I’ve lost everything I love?”

“Everyone has something to lose, Captain.”

“I lost my best friend, I lost my life. I lost everything.”

“From before. But now there is something that compels you.”

“A soul for a soul.” Steve nods. “How does it come back? The stone? After someone takes it?”

“When it has served the purpose of the one who wields it, their true purpose - for the stone knows the heart of who wields it. Once that is served, the stone returns. I feel it come back. just out of my reach.”

“A soul for a soul.” Steve moves toward the edge of the cliff. When he looks down all he sees is sad eyes and a hopeful smile, a beating heart that has been slowly opening. Peanut butter sandwiches and one of the people he loves most in this world. He sets the briefcase down and opens it, facing away from Schmidt. 

Schmidt gasps anyway, jerking back as if the power of the stone was a forcefield around Steve. He eases it from the box and takes it in hand, holding it up to the murky light. It glows golden.

Schmidt’s hand reaches out and Steve takes a step back. He can feel the edge of the cliff under his boot. “The rules. No exceptions?”

“No.” There’s naked hunger on Schmidt’s face. He reaches for it again. “A soul for a soul.”

Steve pulls his arm back and throws the stone, sending it sailing into the air, a high arc before it plummets toward the ground below.

“ _No!_ ,” Schmidt yells, reaching for it and grabbing nothing but air. 

Steve looks down as the stone lands, shattering into a million scattered shards. The shards tremble then move, molding together into one stone. Steve knows he shouldn’t be able to see from this height, but it’s clear as day. As it reforms the base of the cliff starts to glow with a pulsing golden light.

Steve kneels beside the edge of the cliff and looks down. One hand holds down the lid of the suitcase, and the other is clenched into a fist. “C’mon. C’mon.”

“It won’t work!” Schmidt cries, high and sharp. “What’s done is done! What is gone is gone!”

“Has anyone ever returned the stone?” Schmidt screams and it echoes in a deafening boom. His face stretched into an even more horrible countenance. “You said there is no exception to the rule. _A soul for a soul_!”

The golden light grows, turning Schmidt a sickly orange and gray. It reaches the edge of the cliff, reaches out toward Steve then suddenly the world goes dark, the air stands still, and then everything explodes into white.

**

He opens his eyes and is staring up at a purple and orange sky. His entire body aches, and it’s not until he’s sitting up that he realizes he’s been lying in a shallow pool of water.

“I’m glad you’re awake. I wasn’t about to do mouth to mouth.”

Steve twists sharply to see Natasha sitting off to the side on the sand-like ground. All his air leaves him in a rush. He can barely get enough breath to say her name. “Nat.”

“I guess we won?”

“We wouldn’t have. Not without you.” He stands then moves to sit next to her. He leans against her, shoulder to shoulder. “Tony’s...Tony…” 

He’s cried too many tears lately, more than he’s allowed himself to cry, possibly ever. He grabs her hand and squeezes it. She squeezes in return. “No soul stone for him?”

“No. He’s gone. He’s… at rest.”

“Everyone’s back?”

“Yeah.” 

“But you’re here.”

“Banner made a promise that we’re return the stones to the exact place and time that we took them. I have the three New York ones left. Well, one of them’s New Jersey.”

“What?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Pretty sure with the quantum realm you’ve got time to tell me.”

He does - what they did to get the stones, what happened when Bruce tried to use the gauntlet, what happened when Tony did. How the portals opened and everyone was there, That they won and Thanos disappeared into nothing more than dust.

“So New Jersey, two stones in New York, then home.”

“Yeah.” He nods though he’s frowning and his brow is furrowed. “Home.”

“You’re going to do what you’re going to do, no matter what I say,” Natasha starts, holding up a hand to keep Steve silent. “And I’m sure, whatever it is, you’ve got it all figured out in your head and any of the parts that don’t work or don’t make sense are being ignored. I know you’re tired. I know that, with Tony gone, nothing will ever be the same, but that’s okay. Change is okay. The world will be alright without you, Steve Rogers.”

“I know.”

“But I don’t know if we will. Not the Avengers. But Us. Bruce. Clint. Rhodey. Thor, Wanda, Sam, Barnes. Me. You’re my family, Steve. And that means I’ll let you go if that’s your choice, but I need you to know that I’ll…” She stops and takes a shaky breath. He reaches out and catches her tear as it falls. “I love you, you asshole. And I’ll miss you.”

He turns his head and kisses her temple. “I love you too. And I never said I was going anywhere. Or anywhen.”

“I know you.”

“You do.” He stands up and holds a hand out to her to help her to her feet. She’s still in the quantum suit and her GPS is still on her hand. “Go home.”

She nods and gets her helmet up, looking at him through the ghostly blue. “Come home.”


End file.
